STATEMENT: AFPI Commends Representative Steel’s DETERRENT Act

Washington, D.C. – Today, the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) released the following statement from Jonathan Pidluzny, Ph.D., Director of the Higher Education Reform Initiative at AFPI, after the House Education and the Workforce Committee advanced Representative Michelle Steel’s (R-CA) DETERRENT Act. The legislation would amend the Higher Education Act to lower the reporting threshold for foreign gifts to U.S. universities and restrict contracts with foreign entities of concern.

“Foreign governments and entities have, for decades, used financial levers to access sensitive intellectual property and shape the cultural environment at U.S. colleges and universities. This includes hostile regimes from the Chinese Communist Party to radical Middle East dictatorships. They have endowed faculty chairs, stolen research secrets, and funded cultural centers—all to advance their own, illiberal, interests. Some of the most virulently anti-Zionist faculty and programs on U.S. campuses today, whose activities fuel antisemitism, are funded by foreign actors.

The DETERRENT Act would improve transparency and turn back foreign influence in higher education. By making it more difficult for malicious foreign actors to shape the campus intellectual environment or hijack research programs, the DETERRENT Act is an essential step toward ensuring that American campuses are advancing American interests and values.”